


The Wretch

by Transformers0



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, But fortunately this is an AU, Cage, Cages, Character Death In Dream, Dreams and Nightmares, Dreams vs. Reality, Everything Changed When The Fire Nation Attacked, F/M, Fire Nation (Avatar), Flashbacks, Fractures (ATLA), Fractures (AU), Gen, Imprisonment, Kya and Hakoda are a great couple, Kya damn well sacrificed her life for her family, Kya has PTSD, Kya has been traumatized by prison, Kya has suffered a lot, Kya is a Hero, Kya is a great mother, Kya is traumatized, Near Death, Near Death Experiences, Night Terrors, Nightmare Fuel, Nightmares, Prisoner of War, Rats, The Water's Wail, Waterbender Prison, Wrongful Imprisonment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:28:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23137687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Transformers0/pseuds/Transformers0
Summary: Set in the AU world of "Fractures", a story by good_eviening.Even after being freed from the Fire Nation's prison for waterbenders, Kya is still suffering from nightmares of the many years she spent locked up in there.Of course, there is nothing that family and love can't fix.
Relationships: Hakoda/Kya (Avatar)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 89





	The Wretch

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EvieNyx](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvieNyx/gifts).



> Dedicated to good_eviening.
> 
> Thank you for writing such an awesome ongoing ATLA fic for us.
> 
> And thank you for writing my favorite ATLA AU fanfic.

**The Wretch**

“Here’s your food, you piece of scum,” the guard groused at her, tossing the stale slice of bread in the cage, “Now eat.”

She propped herself up on her arms, her limbs shaking with the effort as they struggled to support her weight. Seeing as how she was so malnourished, at first glance it would seem puzzling that she couldn’t support what little weight she had. But her time in this prison had taken away most of her muscle mass too, and by now she was only a thin, bony frame.

She crawled out from the corner of her cell, her muscles aching from disuse, caused by her confinement in the cramped space of her small cage for so long. The rough cloth of her prison tunic scratched her skin, the sleeves and hems ragged with age, the fabric utterly frayed and torn. During her first days here, she had been deeply humiliated by her dishevelled appearance, before more pressing concerns manifested themselves.

She took the bread in her calloused hands, her skin leathery and scabrous from a lack of water.

The guards just gave her the bare minimum of food and water to survive in this place. It was only enough to keep her alive. Her blood pulsed through her veins, her heart aching as it beat, her mind feeling so tired and her head throbbing with agony as each of her senses were subjected to constant dehydration. Her stomach churned painfully, and each move that her body made was rife with stabbing cramps, a consequence of her perpetual, debilitating hunger.

She took a bite out of the slice of bread, her jaws working slowly, stiff and sore. She coughed after swallowing it down. Her throat was parched. The air was so dry. She was half-choking on crusty bread that had the beginnings of mould on it.

But she was hungry beyond belief, and food was one of the only three things that would keep her alive at this point.

So she struggled onwards, eating her dinner ration piece by piece, bite by bite, nibble by nibble.

Eventually, she managed to finish her meagre allowance of food, and she settled back against one corner of the cage for the night.

Her lower limbs ached from disuse, and she longed to be let out of her cell, for she had been locked up in there for so many years already.

She looked up at the small, barred window high above her cage. The moon was out, and the stars were sparkling magnificently. She closed her eyes and sighed sadly. How she wished with all her heart that her fate had been different.

Her breathing became ragged, breaking down into short, sharp, painful gasps. She struggled to hold back the tears, desperate not to cry. Water lost as tears from her eyes was water lost from her malnourished body. She couldn’t afford to weep, to feel sorry for herself. Her dehydrated body needed to preserve what little moisture it had left.

But resisting the destructive waves of self-pity and despair was a losing battle. It had been so long since she had experienced a kind touch and a loving embrace. She had not heard any warmth in the voices that had spoken to her during her years of imprisonment. The guards always strove to be as cruel as possible.

She weakly clasped her hands over her mouth as the sobbing began. Not for the first time, all of her hope deserted her. All of her worries and fears and harrowing thoughts thundered through her mind, her heart thumping painfully as the bleak reality of her torturous existence was laid bare for her lonely soul to comprehend.

She wondered why she hadn’t gone mad already. She pondered on the purpose of her suffering. So anguished was she that she ultimately questioned, again not for the first time, why she was still alive after so, so long in this place.

_Let this end…_

_I want this to be over…_

_Please..._

Why was her soul refusing to die?

Would she be trapped in here for the rest of her life? It seemed that way…

She curled in on herself, broken with sadness, utterly vanquished by her misery.

The enemy had won. They had taken her away from her home, taken her freedom, her rights and her dignity. She had not been the first victim, nor would she be the last.

The oppressors of her people were powerful foes, and with their lust for power and dominance, they would conquer the rest of the world soon enough.

They might have defeated everyone else already. They might have already won the war. She would never know.

But as she quietly wept to herself, the memories of her husband’s face, and those of her children, flashed through the darkness of her mind. And that was all she needed to remember that she had surrendered herself to the enemy for her family's sake.

_“I’ll see you again,”_ she promised silently, praying that her intentions, her wishes, her deepest desires would be carried away from this cage, out through the windows, and away on the winds to wherever her family was.

_I will see you again. I promise._

And with that, a great burden was lifted off her heart. Her tortured mind found a reprieve of serenity and peace. She could breathe again, freely, no longer suffocating with despair, no longer choked up with unspeakable grief. Her miserable existence became bearable again.

No longer was her life futile and pathetic.

Her soul had found its purpose again. Her struggles, her battle to stay alive, to survive from day to day — there was a greater reason and meaning behind it all.

Despite the metal bars around her, she felt free in her heart as she closed her eyes and finally drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Something didn’t feel right.

There was a sharp pain in her lower extremities.

She opened her eyes to find herself staring down at a lifeless, unmoving body. As she looked on, she observed the lack of a rise and fall in the chest area of the corpse. A rat was present, nibbling away at the toes of the body.

Feeling nauseated at the sight, she made a move towards the corpse, aiming to drive away the rat, when she found that her limbs were missing. She looked around in alarm, horror striking her soul when she found that her own body was nowhere to be seen. She couldn’t feel her hair, her fingers, or her toes. She couldn’t feel her tongue, her teeth, or her lips.

Her body was incorporeal.

But as she studied the corpse on the cage floor again, she found that the truth of the matter was far, far worse.

She recognized the ink-black colour of the hair, and how it reached down to the shoulders of the carcass. She recognized the tanned skin tone, now sickly pale from a prolonged lack of exposure to sunlight. And despite not having seen her own reflection for years at this point, she recognized her own features. The way her jaw angled out sharply to a point, how her round face made her already striking cheekbones more prominent — all of this served to hammer home the harrowing revelation.

She was dead. Nothing more than a cold corpse now.

_No. No! NO!_

She wanted to scream, but she had no mouth. Or rather, her mouth was shut and stiff. Her intangible, disembodied soul writhed in the empty air, unspeakable torment her only existence now. She wanted so desperately to shake her own body awake, to rouse herself from her final slumber.

But ultimately, it was simply impossible.

She could only watch, only stare, as the rodent continued munching away at her toes, her skin flaking and breaking off far too easily as sharp teeth perforated her flesh over and over and over. Her blood, half-congealed, leaked out slowly onto the cage floor, pooling beside the messy holes in her flesh.

If she had a working stomach, she would have retched.

But then she heard the chittering of dozens upon dozens of rats, and below her she saw a flood of rodents descend upon the cage, swarming all over her corpse.

As her body became completely buried, it was then that she finally found her voice and screamed.

Her soul was suddenly sucked back into her corpse and she began to struggle. Feeling life return to her limbs, she thrashed and writhed and continued to scream.

"KYA!" she heard someone bellow her name, and immediately she woke up in a cold sweat, tangled in the sheets of her bed, still thrashing and writhing and screaming her heart out. But warm, rugged hands wrapped around her shoulders, and she found herself being pulled into the strong, loving arms of her husband.

"Kya," said Hakoda again, gently mustering her attention and humbly requesting her focus to be placed on him, “Don’t worry. You’re safe now. They can't hurt you anymore."

Though her heart stopped racing at her husband’s words, Kya still looked frightened and unsure. Hakoda just kept calmly reassuring her, whispering lovingly to her.

“They won’t. I won’t let them. You’re safe now. You’re safe.”

At her husband’s simple yet resolute declaration, the dam around Kya's heart finally shattered. She let herself slump into her husband’s embrace completely. She let her body finally relax.

Her soul, though scarred, was no longer tormented. She was with her family again. She was free. She was safe.

_I’m free…_

_I’m safe…_

**Author's Note:**

> This was written as a homework piece for a creative writing course at my university.
> 
> Of course, Kya and Hakoda's names had to be swapped out with placeholders in the original, prototype version.
> 
> Then I just simply reinserted them when I came to post the story on the site.


End file.
